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Do you know what a peck is? Or a league, or that there are 4 fish in a herring? Or that you used measure cheese in stones? Although the metric system is very efficient and standardised, it isn’t as much fun as a firkin, a pottle and a hand

Students made up their own ancient-but-modern measurements:

How about a “KARDASHIAN”? Which is 72 days in length (the length of time she was married. If you please).

There was also an invention of a scale – like the Richter or the Beaufort: only this one measures the craziness of goats from level 1 (sleeping) to level 10 (flying)!

The Model United Nations Assembly (MUNA) is often run at senior school or undergraduate level, however HDS year 9 ran their own MUNA today. Mrs Hepburn, librarian and part time UN Security Chief commented on what a brilliant group of delegates they were, because they indeed were brilliant. Resolutions passed by the UN Assembly were: financial support for the international space station, and introduction of immigration quotas . Resolutions not supported were: an international disaster relief fund; a ban on whaling; ban on the hijab in French schools, reducing carbon dioxide emissions and the Kyoto protocol. Members of the Assembly displayed excellent diplomatic and oratory skills with a high level understanding of trade agreements, security bloc and other alliances within the international community. Well done/bien hecho/bravo/good job/ben fatto/jal haess-eoyo/Zuò de hǎo/good on ya/mistawiiy jiddan

Did you know the Greeks hated zero? Or that a chap from Baghdad had a big hand in the number system that we now use? Or that couple in Welsh doesn’t mean two, it means a few? Or what a google is? Or that a peck, a cable, a hand and a league are measurements? Or what a hexaflexagon might be?

Year 8 are spending this term looking at numbers. They are sharpening their “mental edge” by solving really hard mental maths and brain teasers. They have looked at the hostory of our number system and are constructing cartoons and videos to show the incredible number journey. They also brought “number themed” food:

Welcome to 2014 at HDS. Our theme for this year is that “brilliance requires diligence”, i.e that intelligence can’t translate to success, unless there are strategies in place to turn that potential into talent. Our aim is to be the best we can be. This is quite different from being the best – one is possible, one is not under our control. In fact we need to be:

The best we can, in the time we have with the resources available to us.

We need to prioritise in our busy school lives, we need to make time to be creative and follow our passions, and we need to negotiate to make a good job of subject areas that we are not so keen on. We need to work on our habits of mind and we need to challenge ourselves daily.

Congratulations to the year 9/10 science challenge winners from Open Minds. Theirs was the only cloning machine to actually work and anyone who has a flowchart of disease symptoms starting with Dargarea, moving through Whangarabies, onto Gorestones and ending in Invercardiac arrest deserves their win. Well done!

Congratulations also to the Year 7/8 second place getters in the science category – very well done!

Open Minds is a competition between the 4 local high schools for year 7/8 and 9/10 GATE students. See below the busy preparations. It’s a lesson in group roles, leadership roles, self – managed learning, resilience, creativity and adherence to the task. It’s a great indicator of how far the HDS students as a group have come since the start of the year.